Jo Duxbury’s Post

View profile for Jo Duxbury

Brand & Messaging Strategy for Growth Stage Businesses

Naming a brand, product, pet or child is HARD. If you're launching a business, you can iterate and evolve your product and branding as you grow. But the name... that's gonna stick around for a long time. (Yes, companies do change their names, but it's expensive.) So how can you come up with the perfect name for your company, brand, product or service? 1. Start with your fundamentals: What does your entity stand for? What problem are you solving? What do you want to achieve? 2. Figure out your brand values and how they differentiate you: What's important in how you behave and operate? How is this different from or better than other brands? 3. Define your brand's personality. Is it young and fun and energetic? Mature, professional and reassuring? How does this sound? 4. Using the above as inspo, get to brainstorming using a variety of naming techniques: Research Latin, Greek or other non-English words, portmanteaus that combine a couple of things, completely made-up words, alliterative names, alternative spellings (approach these with caution), have fun with onmatopoeia, find words that epitomise what your brand does, think about places that are special to you, get inspo from song lyrics... get creative! 5. When you have a shortlist: Check for domain name and social media handle availability, trademark availability, and - importantly - for any potential cultural sensitivities, gaffes or misinterpretation in your markets. Iranians are happy to wash their laundry with Barf detergent (it means 'snow'), English-speaking markets not so much... A naming rite of passage is landing on a goosebump-inducing **perfect** name, only to find the domains are not available. Oof! If there are no potential copyright/trademark conflicts, consider top-level domains other than .com and your country TLD (.co.uk, etc.). 🤯 If this all sounds too overwhelming, you can always hire me to help you come up with the perfect name (and tagline) for your business baby. Image source: r/crappyoffbrands #branding #brandname #naming #brandstrategy

  • No alternative text description for this image
Jay Sennett

You bring the million-dollar conversion copywriting ideas. We bring the tech wizardry that prints the money 🤑. Together, we turn 'wouldn't it be amazing if...' into 'holy cow, it's actually happening!'

10mo

"for any potential cultural sensitivities, gaffes or misinterpretation in your markets. Iranians are happy to wash their laundry with Barf detergent (it means 'snow'), English-speaking markets not so much..." Reminds of the Chevy Nova, which bombed in Mexico. Va is the verb for goes.... Chevrolet tried to see a car in Mexico that translated as “doesn’t go” LOL

To view or add a comment, sign in

Explore topics